After the interview aired, Lehrmann was charged with sexual intercourse without consent, but the trial was abandoned in 2022 due to juror misconduct and not revived due to fears about Higgins’ mental health.
Without a trial and a means to clear his name, Lehrmann turned to defamation action, claiming that Network Ten and “The Project” presenter Lisa Wilkinson damaged his reputation by providing enough information in the program for him to be identified, though he was not named.
Network Ten and Wilkinson chose to fight the charge, mounting a truth defense, meaning that to win, the network’s lawyers needed to prove that on the balance of probabilities the rape happened.
Lee found Monday that the two had sex that night, but Higgins was so inebriated she couldn’t possibly have given her consent – and that Lehrmann didn’t seek to obtain it.
“I’m satisfied that it is more likely than not that Mr Lehrmann’s state of mind was such that he was so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Miss Higgins’ consent,” said Lee.
The ruling delivers a devastating blow to Lehrmann’s attempt to clear his name. As Lee put it in his judgement: “Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.”
No, this is about an Australian politician who got a party staff member either drunk or drugged and raped her in Parliament House.
The media reported it on but didn’t name names, he got offended because everyone knew it was about him. He tried to sue after the original case failed due to other reasons, bringing the whole thing back into court and he was found guilty today.
not a politician, a public service employee; a politician’s staffer.
a politician is an elected member of parliament or a senator.
He was a member of the Liberal party, he worked purely for the party, that’s a politician, he just had a shitty lesser role.
A public service employee would be the people coming up with reports for a department or the IT staff running the systems.